Saturday, March 24, 2012

What Will Cause the World to Tremble?

When Israel
went forth from Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,

Judah became His sanctuary, Israel,
His dominion.

The sea looked and fled; the Jordan turned
back.

The mountains skipped like rams, the
hills, like lambs.

What ails you, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?

O mountains, that you skip like
rams? O hills, like lambs?

Tremble, O earth, before the Lord, before
the God of Jacob,

Who
turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of water.

- Psalm
114

Will the
world tremble and be moved by our buildings? By our entertainment? Our endless
programs (we are a Swiss Army Knife, not a doubled-edged sword!)? Our money,
celebrity, political power? Our open doors, open everything? Our willingness to
water down everything to build bridges to nothing? Our habits and traditions?
Our platitudes affirming what they already believe – that they are the center
of the universe, little gods in their own right? What will cause the world to
tremble and be moved before the Church? The presence of the Lord, and nothing
else.

Keep His
Word faithfully without editing or compromise, no matter how unappealing or
unexciting this may seem to an unbelieving world that hates that Word and those
who hold to it: “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he
will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and
make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and
the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s Who sent Me’” (John 14:23,24).

Church, open
the Word by the power and teaching of the Spirit and enter in; Spirit, open us
with Your sword (Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12,13) and enter in. And so, may we
be ever in Your presence together now and forever as Your Church.

For the choir director; on the
Gittith. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. How lovely are Your dwelling places, O
LORD of hosts!

My soul longed and even yearned for
the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

The bird also has found a house, and
the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even Your altars,
O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.

How blessed are those who dwell in
Your house! They are ever praising You. Selah.

How blessed is the man whose
strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion!

Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring; the early
rain also covers it with blessings.

They go from strength to strength, every
one of them appears before God in Zion.

O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah.

Behold our shield, O God, and look
upon the face of Your anointed.

For a day in Your courts is better
than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of
my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

For the LORD God is a sun and
shield; the LORD gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from
those who walk uprightly.